Our yokes

For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page, which includes Hiortdahl's current Living by the Word column as well as past magazine and blog content. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century.

Before his questioning of the doctrine of hell sparked such a (ahem) firestorm, Rob Bell wrote in Velvet Elvis a chapter about yokes, including this:

A rabbi's set of rules and lists, which was really that rabbi's interpretation of how to live the Torah, was called that rabbi's yoke . . . One rabbi even said his yoke was easy.